City College women’s basketball had its playoff hopes dashed by Moorpark in the team’s final home game of the season, losing 70-56 Wednesday night at the Sports Pavilion.

The Moorpark Raiders did everything they could to keep City College out of the playoffs as the Vaqueros needed to win the final two games of the season.

“It sucks,” said sophomore Morgan Giove (No. 21) after playing in her final home game as a Vaquero. “I’m really upset and can’t believe it’s almost over. But this team played hard and fought well.”

Despite the final score, City College hung in the game throughout and made the first half very close and competitive. In the third quarter, the game started to fall apart for the Vaqueros and a comeback wasn’t enough to finish on top.

“We got down by a lot but the girls fought back. It takes a lot of heart to come back like they did towards the end,” said head coach Sandrine Krul. “This game showed the character of the team. They are fighters and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

The Vaqueros got off to a good start and led 14-12 after the first quarter. Moorpark did not regain the lead from City College until two minutes before half when Emily Herring (No. 10) nailed a 3-pointer to give Moorpark a 27-25 edge. From that point, the Raiders possessed the lead for the rest of the game.

An abundance of turnovers and sloppy play overwhelmed the Vaqueros in the third quarter. In the final six minutes of the quarter the Vaqueros turned the ball over seven times and

Moorpark went on a 12-0 run to go up 45-31.

“We weren’t making a lot of good passes, said Vaquero Meagan Moore (No. 3). “And on the other end of those turnovers we played bad defense and gave up a lot of easy points.”

The Vaqueros cut a fourteen point deficit to five with six minutes remaining, but Moorpark promptly went on another run to put the game away, showing why they boast a 20-6 record.

“It seemed like we were rushing things because we got down and couldn’t score,” said Giove. “We rushed ourselves into a lot of shots because we were trying to get back in it.”

The Vaqueros were outshot 48 percent to 33 percent, and turned the ball over 18 times in the tough loss. Many of the points for Moorpark came from the free throw line after the Vaqueros were forced to foul on the fastbreaks caused by the turnovers. They scored fourteen more points at the stripe than City College.

“They were playing really hard out there,” said Krul. “Cut it to five and then the next thing we know we were down by fourteen again. We have 11 freshman so they’ve got to learn to improve in those situations, but the effort was there all game long.”

City College is looking forward to playing Ventura in its final game of the season.

“We came really close to beating them last time but I know we will win this time,” said Moore. “We have to win.”

The Vaqueros will travel to play Ventura on Saturday, Feb. 17 for their final game. City College is looking to finish the season on a good note and with an even record of 13-13.

“It is very important that we win this game on Saturday,” said Giove. “I  just really want to win my last game as a Vaquero.”